As Director, Cécile Weidhofer leads projects focused on implementing gender equality in politics and public administration. Her work centers on cross-party collaboration with current and aspiring female local politicians, as well as with municipalities and political parties. From 2018 to 2025, she directed the Helene Weber Kolleg, the first nationwide, non-partisan platform for women in local politics. Drawing on insights from both theory and practice, Cécile Weidhofer regularly conducts workshops and gives lectures on various aspects of gender justice in politics.

A dual German-French citizen, she also heads the Politics and International Affairs division at EAF Berlin. For the past 10 years, she has held various roles supporting projects across Europe and the MENA region aimed at promoting women's political participation. 

Born in Aix-en-Provence in 1982, Cécile Weidhofer completed her Master’s degree in Intercultural German-French Studies at the Université de Provence and the University of Tübingen in 2006. She studied linguistics in Montpellier, with a focus on intercultural communication.

She is a jury member for the "Gender Award – Kommune mit Zukunft" and co-author of the publication "Mit Kind in die Politik – Gute Praktiken für die Vereinbarkeit von Familie, Beruf und kommunalpolitischem Ehrenamt" (In Politics with Children – Best Practices for Balancing Family, Career, and Local Political Office), as well as co-editor of the anthology "Zu anders für die Macht - Wie mutige Frauen für Gleichberechtigung in der Politik kämpfen" (Too Different for Power – How Courageous Women Fight for Equality in Politics).

Publications

• Sarah Robinson & Cécile Weidhofer: Elected and then threatened? Experiences of female members of the Bundestag regarding hate speech and harassment in politics. EAF Berlin 2026.

• Cécile Weidhofer & Tannaz Falaknaz (2026): Who’s left to do it? Why we need to talk about mental health in politics. Herder Verlag
  ‍
• Lukoschat, Helga; Mahler Walther, Kathrin; Weidhofer, Cécile (2025): Parität vor Ort?!? Rechtliche Reformansätze für die Kommunalpolitik (Parity at the Local Level?!? Legal Reform Approaches for Local Politics). Published by: Der Deutsche Juristinnenbund e.V., pp. 140-143. Download
• Falaknaz, Tannaz/Lohaus, Stefanie/Weidhofer, Cécile (Eds.), (2025): Too Different for Power? How Courageous Women Fight for Equality in Politics. Herder Verlag.
• Weidhofer, Cécile; Walchshäusl, Dorothea; Friedrich, Sarah (2023): Politics with Children. Best Practices for Balancing Family, Career, and Local Political Office
• "Modernizing (Local) Politics – Examples from France", blog post from July 21, 2023.